


5 names kent parson had on his arm by accident +1 he chose

by whatsthatfor



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Gen, M/M, Past Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmates, Too Many OCs, also its in the present tense, sorry i only write screenplays, verbosity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsthatfor/pseuds/whatsthatfor
Summary: 5+1 soulmate au where when you find a soulmate, someone who will influence your life dramatically, their name appears on your arm.





	

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd, patater trash
> 
> sorry about this whole thing I'm too verbose for academic writing who knows why I try to write narratives sometimes :)
> 
> this is loosely inspired by every soulmate fic I've ever read, which I'm obsessed with, but especially the ones where you accumulate marks from multiple people, but especially these three:
> 
> [Where I Fall is Where I Land](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3607869) by [myrmidryad](http://archiveofourown.org/users/myrmidryad/pseuds/myrmidryad)  
> [True Colors](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2121813) by [lady_ragnell](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_ragnell/pseuds/lady_ragnell) and  
> [Tallymarks](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2761262) by [SuperCalvin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/supercalvin/pseuds/supercalvin)

Most people have three names.

 

_ Alex _

 

The first time a name appears on Kent’s wrist, he’s just fallen on his face. The ice is cold through his gloves, and his mom’s back is turned or she would have yelled to see if he was ok, he knows it. 

Instead, one of the other boys skates over and holds out a hand. Alex is a year older, and has been skating for three. He’s already everything Kent wants to be on the ice, solid and reckless all at once. 

Alex’s name has always been light. It matched Kent’s freckles at first, but by the time a few years pass it’s faded until it’s barely visible at all, and Kent’s alone again.

 

_ Jack _

 

Jack is like Alex all over again - always a step ahead of Kent. And Kent is okay with that. They play good hockey, better than Kent’s ever played, and Kent doesn’t feel so alone.  Kent hasn’t had a name appear since Alex, not even a family name like most kids have.

Jack’s name appears slowly, and at first Kent doesn’t even notice. He refuses to look at Jack’s wrist until he finds him lying on the bathroom floor. Even then he doesn’t mean to, but a stretched out hand catches his attention. And the wrist above it. Kent stumbles out of the bathroom, makes a call - Bob or Alicia, he doesn’t remember anything the next day but a clench in his chest and Jack’s eyes closed and a wrist he’s never been brave enough to look at before.

It’s Alicia who calls him three days later, to congratulate him on being picked and tell him that Jack’s ok, but he’ll be in rehab for at least a few weeks, and yes she’ll tell Jack he said hello and yes his phone is still active Jack will get any messages Kent says when he’s out and feel free to call any time. Kent must call once a day. He texts more - whenever he thinks of something Jack might like. He never gets a response.

A week after Jack gets out Kent hears a message about a number out of service, and drives over to the Zimmermans’, and Alicia meets comes out to his car before he can get out. Her eyes are sad when she gently tells him that Jack isn’t ready to talk, and Kent thinks he feels a tingle on his arm. 

Before dawn the next day he wakes up and his arm is  _ burning _ and he can barely think because it  _ hurts  _ and somehow it hadn’t occurred to him that Jack could only reject him if he knew Kent had called and -

 

_ Ellie _

 

The first person Kent meets in Vegas - after the Aces manager - is the team’s social media intern. She’s in college, and almost Kent’s age, and seems almost as nervous as he is until she launches into a spiel on responsible posting. By the time she finishes talking Kent’s exhausted, and apparently he looks it because Ellie gives him a pitying look and starts flipping through cat pictures on her phone.

It turns out she volunteers at a cat shelter when she isn’t here or in class, and by the time Kent leaves he’s offered an afternoon a week until training starts. A month after he starts volunteering that turns into an afternoon at the shelter then dinner with Ellie (and often her girlfriend) before he goes back to the empty apartment he’d rented a week after he got to Vegas. Not that it’s very empty anymore, with Ellie and Katie (Katie and Kenny, Ellie giggles whenever the three of them are together, and Jack’s name for him doesn’t hurt as much from his new friends’ lips) coming over.

A week after Ellie’s name appears on his wrist, Kent falls in love. And as if the ugliest cat he’s ever seen isn’t irresistible enough, Ellie had gone and named it Kit Purrson, supposedly as petty revenge for cancelled dinner plans. The apartment’s even less empty with Kit, and Ellie comes over that much more often to complain about how ugly Kent’s cat is. 

 

_ Jeff _

 

When he joins the Aces, Kent is in overdrive. It feels like it’s been months since Jack’s name died on his arm, but Kent can’t stop thinking about it. He drags himself to the rink every morning for practice, and by the time he gets his gear on he’s pushed Jack out of his mind. He pushes himself until he feels like he’s breaking, and he almost hopes he does. 

Most of his team ignores him - they’ve seen rookies like this before, and eventually he’ll burn out or settle. Nothing they say will help. Except, not all of them think that. And after a while, Jeff’s wheedling gets to him, and Kent follows a few of his teammates out onto the strip. He’ll earn a reputation here, and he’ll learn how to earn his team’s respect.

Jeff is different. He’s only a bit older than Kent, he’s been traded twice already in his three seasons in the league, and he’s as settled as Kent is flighty. Becoming Kent’s best friend is probably something he did by accident (he’s just good with rookies, Kent tells himself), but Jeff manages it. And once he gets Kent to come out with him, it’s not long before he’s following Kent home after the bar because he’s “too drunk for a cab, Parse, they’ll rip me off!” and Kent rolls his eyes but there’s something nice about waking up in the morning and Jeff is half awake on the couch watching  _ Liberty’s Kids _ reruns on PBS.

Jeff’s name appears on Kent’s arm almost two years into their friendship, a bit darker than the freckles around it, almost the same color as Jeff’s  _ Kent _ . They don’t celebrate, but they do go out for brunch.

 

_ Sophie _

 

Kent and his sister don’t get each others names until after their mom dies. She’s always been older, enough to be resentful of their mom spending money on hockey gear for Kent instead of new clothes for her. When she was old enough to get a job they rarely saw each other, and by the time Kent got drafted she was done with college and settled in California. They see each other when their mom flies out once a year, close as they are. 

When he hears about his mom, Kent is in Dallas. He’s pulling on his gear when his phone rings, and he almost doesn’t pick up. It’s his first healthy scratch since he started playing. The night of the wake Kent and Sophie stay up late. It’s the first time they’ve both been in their childhood home at the same time, the first time either of them has been there without their mom, and the first time they’ve ever really talked.

_ Sophia _ blooms across Kent’s wrist that night, tentative, and by the time he hugs her goodbye and gets on a plane back to Vegas it’s the darkest mark he has.

 

_ +Alexei _

 

By the time he meets Alexei - really meets him, not just on the ice - Kent is okay with the fact that he’ll never have another romantic soulmate. He had Jack and lost him, but he still has his three bonds, and Kit and the rest of his friends. He finally feels as settled as he always wanted to be. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean he’s quite ready when he gets the (courtesy) invitation to J-- Zimmerman’s wedding. To his soulmate. A soulmate that, it’s widely publicized, is the only name on Zimmerman’s wrist. Apparently no matter how happy you are, proof that someone you thought could never love just couldn’t love  _ you _ hurts. So Kent cries on the phone with Sophie, and lets Ellie and Katie buy him bottomless mimosas at brunch that week and lets Jeff order sushi which is Kent’s favorite but Jeff kind of hates the next time he stays over.

He bites the bullet and books a ticket to Providence. Two tickets, because he isn’t going without his sister, who would kill him if he tried to go it alone. 

Sophie ditches him as soon as they get to the reception, and Kent can’t blame her. There’s dancing, and an open bar, and Kent is moping. He makes the rounds by himself, dodging Jack and Eric as cleverly as he can until Alicia manages to grab him.

“Kent! We were so surprised when you said you’d be here,” she says. “How are you?” 

Alicia’s smiling, and suddenly Kent feels like he’s shrunk and he’s eighteen again and his best friend’s mom is looking for a way around telling him he isn’t good enough. But she’s always been kind, and he’s never been the best judge of what people think of him, and he can’t help but tell her about his people. 

Jack’s dad finds them while Kent is recounting the story of meeting Ellie and Katie and Kit, and he’s pushed his sleeve up a bit and he thinks Bob flinches a hair at the burn mark, but Ellie’s name is stark against his skin and so are Jeff’s and Sophie’s. Kent’s laughing by the time Sophie joins them, and when Jack’s parents excuse themselves and are replaced by a huge Russian a moment later Kent doesn’t give it another thought.

Until he realizes that it’s Mashkov, and it would look like Mashkov was flirting with Sophie if it didn’t look so much like he was flirting with Kent. And realizes that apparently Mashkov’s idea of flirting is to bring up the time he pulled Kent out of a pileup by the scruff of his neck and shook him like a ragdoll. 

Of course, Sophie invites Mashkov to visit next time he’s out west (offering up Kent’s house with a wave of her hand: “I’ll just come to Vegas, it’s not far! I come to most of Kent’s games anyway,” she says with a sly grin). 

Mashkov grins back, and Kent forgets about it until the first time the Falconers come to Vegas.

Sophie lands at his house at ten at night on a Wednesday with two suitcases. By the time Mashkov gets to Kent’s house, the Aces have beaten the Falconers 3-2 and Sophie has gotten Jeff, Ellie, and Katie to come over. And just like that, with a “Call me Alexei!” that Kent isn’t sure applies to him, Mashkov-maybe-Alexei has been adopted by Kent’s family. 

Alexei (he is Alexei now, Kent’s sure) starts visiting whenever the Falconers are in town, and Kent visits him. Then he starts coming just to visit - he’s become fast friends with Sophie and Ellie, and Katie’s father is somehow from the same town as Alexei so they’re constantly talking, Alexei still flirts with Kent, but Kent is settled now. And Alexei’s his friend, and his friends’ friend, which is more than enough. 

But Alexei keeps flirting, and one day Ellie visits Kent and tells him that she had a talk with Alexei and “yes, Kent, he means it when he flirts with you - just give it a chance” and when he tells her that he doesn’t want to risk ruining things for everyone she tells him to stop being an idiot, he’s their soulmate and if that means they have to stop hanging out with Alexei they’ll stop hanging out with Alexei, but “really Kent you would have to actively work to wreck things with Alexei, so chill.”

And the next day Alexei comes by, and somewhere between the doorbell ringing and sitting curled around a pillow against the arm of the couch while Alexei sits on the other, Kent makes a decision. He knows exactly when it happens - he’s walking towards the door to let Alexei in, and he realizes he looks like a goblin or something in a too-big Aces hoodie and sweatpants from Sophie’s school and mismatched socks.

There’s a minute where his arm itches, and he scratches it without looking, but he knows because it’s halfway between his wrist and his elbow, just above the place he knows his arm reads  _ Sophia _ and Kent wonders if Alexei’s name will be in the English alphabet or Cyrillic.

Then they’re there, sitting across from each other, and Alexei is telling him that he’s had Kent’s name on his wrist for months and maybe it’s platonic but Alexei doesn’t want it to be and what about Kent? Kent’s blushing furiously, and Alexei’s nervous laughing and Kent should probably put him out of his misery but it’s hilarious. Finally Alexei pulls his feet out from under himself and puts them on the floor like he’s about to stand up, so Kent dumps the pillow he’s clinging to on the floor and and pushes his left sleeve up to his elbow.

  
_ Алексе́й  _ is written on his arm, right where he thought it would be, just as dark as Jeff and Ellie and Sophie.

**Author's Note:**

> this is loosely inspired by every soulmate fic I've ever read, which I'm obsessed with, but especially the ones where you accumulate marks from multiple people, but especially these three:
> 
> [Where I Fall is Where I Land](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3607869) by [myrmidryad](http://archiveofourown.org/users/myrmidryad/pseuds/myrmidryad)  
> [True Colors](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2121813) by [lady_ragnell](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_ragnell/pseuds/lady_ragnell) and  
> [Tallymarks](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2761262) by [SuperCalvin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/supercalvin/pseuds/supercalvin)


End file.
